The Young Mother eBook

There are some mothers who seem to have a perfect
hatred of children; and if they can find any plausible
apology for neglecting to nurse them, they will.
Few, indeed, will publicly acknowledge a state of feeling
so unnatural; but there are some even of such.
On the latter, all argument would, I fear, be utterly
lost. Of the former, there may, be hope.

They tell us—­and they are often sustained
by those around them—­that it is very inconvenient
to be so confined to a child that they cannot leave
home for a little while. Can it be their duty—­for
in these days, when virtue and religion, and everything
good, are so highly complimented, no people are more
ready to talk of duty than they who have the
least regard to it—­can it be their duty,
they ask, to exclude themselves from the pleasures
and comforts of social life for half or two thirds
of their most active and happy years? Ought they
not to go abroad, at least occasionally? But
if so, and their children have no other source of
dependence, must they not suffer? Is it not better,
therefore, that they should be early accustomed to
other food, for a part of the time? Besides,
they may be sick; and then the child must rely on others;
and will it not be useful to accustom it early to
do so?

Perhaps few mothers are conscious that this train
of reasoning passes through their minds. But
that something like it is often made the occasion
of substituting food which is less proper, for that
furnished by Divine Providence, there cannot be a
doubt. And the mischief is, that she who has
gone so far, will not scruple, ere long, to go farther.
And, strange and unnatural as it may seem, that mothers
should turn over their children to be nursed wholly
by others, in order to get rid of the inconvenience
of nursing them at their own bosoms, it is only carrying
out to its fullest extent, and reducing to practice,
the train of reasoning mentioned above.

Nor is it necessary that I should stop here to denounce
a course of conduct so unchristian and savage.
I know it is very common in some countries; and those
American mothers who ape the other eastern fashions,
or countenance their sons and daughters in doing it,
will not be slow to imitate this also—­especially
as it is a very convenient fashion. And
I question whether I shall succeed in reasoning them
out of it. Habit, both of thought and action,
is exceedingly powerful. I will, therefore, confine
myself chiefly to those efforts at prevention, from
which much more is to be hoped, in the present state
of society, than from direct attempts at cure.

It will be soon enough to leave a child with another
person, when the mother is actually sick, or unavoidably
absent; or when some other adequate cause is known
to exist. We are to be governed, in these and
similar cases, by general rules, and not by exceptions.
The general rule, in the present case, is, that mothers
can nurse their own children; and, if they have the
proper disposition, that they can do it uninterruptedly.